Cherry Rolls

4.49 from 25 votes

These easy homemade Cherry Rolls are OMG delicious! Just imagine sweet, light, airy buns filled with a tart cherry pie filling and topped with a yummy cream cheese icing! The rolls are perfect for breakfast, brunch, or an after-dinner treat!

Prep Time20

Cook Time20

Rising Time1 30

Total Time2 10

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cherry roll recipe, cherry rolls

Servings:

Calories: 653kcal

Author: Joanna Cismaru

Equipment

Ingredients

¼ ounce active dry yeast (1 package)
1 cup milk warm
½ cup sugar granulated
⅓ cup butter unsalted
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
21 ounce cherry pie filling (1 can)

Cream Cheese Icing

6 tablespoons butter unsalted, softened, or margarine
1½ cups powdered sugar also known as icing sugar, or confectioners sugar
¼ cup cream cheese at room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
⅛ teaspoon salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Bloom the yeast. Pour the lukewarm milk into a small bowl and mix in a teaspoon of the sugar from the dough. Then sprinkle the yeast over the milk and let it set for about 20 seconds before gently stirring it once or twice to fully dissolve. Now, leave it alone to sit for about 5 to 10 minutes until it gets foamy and begins to smell yeasty. If your yeast doesn’t foam up, don’t move forward with the recipe. This means that your yeast is dead and you need to buy new yeast.
Make the dough. Add the remaining sugar, unsalted butter, salt, eggs, and all-purpose flour to the bowl of your stand mixer and then mix until well combined. Now, pour the bloomed yeast milk mixture over the flour mixture and fully incorporate all the ingredients together using the dough hook.
Let the dough rise. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Then put it in a warm place to let it rise for about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
Assemble the rolls. Once the dough has doubled in size, place it on a lightly floured surface and roll it out until it is about 16 inches long by 12 inches wide.
Spread with pie filling. Then spread your favorite cherry pie filling evenly over the dough making sure to cover the entire surface. Now, working carefully, from the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom of the other edge. It should look like a long swirled log when you are done rolling. Then cut the rolled dough into 1¾-inch slices and place them on a lightly greased baking pan.
Let the rolls rise. Cover the rolls on the baking pan with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and leave them to rise for about 30 minutes or until doubled in size.
Bake the cherry rolls. Bake the rolls in a preheated 350℉ (180°C) oven for 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Baking time can vary, so be sure to check them at 15 minutes and it could take up to 25 minutes. Every oven is different.
Make the icing. While the cherry rolls are baking in the oven make the cream cheese frosting by adding all the icing ingredients to a large bowl and beating them together with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy.
Top the cherry rolls with icing. When the cherry buns are done baking, generously spread them with the prepared icing and enjoy.

Notes

Check the date on your yeast. The number 1 reason that dough doesn't rise is due to using old or expired yeast. If your yeast does not bloom and foam up, it will not work and your rolls will be a sad disaster.
Lukewarm milk is a must! If your milk is too cold the yeast won't bloom, but if it's too hot it won't work either. In fact, hot milk will kill your yeast and prevent your dough from rising. So it's really important that your milk is between 98℉ and 105℉ (36.5°C to 40.5°C). I always use a digital thermometer to ensure my milk is perfectly lukewarm.
Use room temperature butter and eggs. This helps to make the dough properly come together. I suggest taking the butter and eggs out of the fridge a couple of hours before you make the dough. Using room temperature ingredients also helps to emulsify the dough creating a more airy fluffy texture.
Don't overwork your dough. When rolling out the dough, try to do it just once. Rolling and re-rolling it will push the air out of the risen dough resulting in rolls that bake up tough. So the less you roll the dough the softer your cherry rolls will be!

Nutrition